Update 28 - Gold Spammers are back from the Isle

[griffit]

Not sure why or how but as soon as I logged in the spamming started, lvl 1 guy on Trial Island.Couple people in 60-69 chat had it happen to them also.Might want to look into it.<div></div>

[Eveningsong]

Make sure you do a "/report spammername" with the text you received showing in the chat window, then do a /petition using the plat spam (or whatever the exact wording is) category and detailing the information about what character sent the tell and that you did a /report. This allows them to track the accounts down and deal with the spammers.

[ximo]

Yeah do the above - and remember the restrictions were only made to the free trial accounts. Regular accounts can still send tells etc from newbie island.

[Woenk1]

Could it be, that it was a test ?How would be so insane to spend money for plat on a testserver ?<div></div>

[Eveningsong]

The original posted wasn't on Test, he was on a Live server. And yes its ridiculous to consider buying plat for Test, cause there's not much to spend it on lol.

[Funkalicio]

I am getting spam via in-game mail these days, usualy 5 to 10 a day.<div></div>

[Magic]

I've been lucky so far since the change to free trial accounts.  But as was already said, any spam from now on is from paid accounts, so report them as soon as you can.

[Chay]

I've been getting it again from the Queen's Colony and the Overlord's Outpost (or whatever it is). Plus even more in game mail spam. What's interesting is that I'm anonymous so would you suppose they are getting my name???<div></div>

[SisterTheresa]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Chayna wrote:<BR>I've been getting it again from the Queen's Colony and the Overlord's Outpost (or whatever it is). Plus even more in game mail spam. What's interesting is that I'm anonymous so would you suppose they are getting my name???<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>From the boards, by looking up guild rosters in EQ2Players ... many ways.

[Rhona]

<div></div><div><blockquote><hr>Chayna wrote:I've been getting it again from the Queen's Colony and the Overlord's Outpost (or whatever it is). Plus even more in game mail spam. What's interesting is that I'm anonymous so would you suppose they are getting my name???<div></div><hr></blockquote>Character names are very easily obtained.  Visit http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/players_index.vm, select a server, click go, and get character name lists (100 per page) and just hit on Next until you get to the end of the list.  Of course, a tiny wget script would automate that rather easily, and could drive an xml in-game email creator for a customized chat window.   I've only tried hitting Next a few times, so there might be a number-of-requests-per-unit-time limit, but putting in a delay would not be hard. <span>:smileysad:On the listing for Najena, the first Ab... name is fairly far down on the second page.  The first page is full of creative names beginning with "Aa" (<span>:smileywink:</span>).Rhoedited to correct use of player when character was intended</span></div><p>Message Edited by Rhonara on <span class=date_text>10-06-2006</span> <span class=time_text>01:30 PM</span>

[Rayche]

<DIV>How do you report in game Email spammers?</DIV>

[ganjookie]

activate your norton antivirus for EQ2<div></div>

[Eveningsong]

<blockquote><hr>Gojirax wrote:<DIV>How do you report in game Email spammers?</DIV><hr></blockquote>SOE recently added a button in the mail window that should be labelled something like "Report" or "Spam". Just hit that when you are viewing a spam email and a copy will be sent off to the spam police <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.

[Antipalad]

How about if Sony actually delt with this problem in a fitting matter for a change? The blocking of tells from trial accounts has been a massive failure. The farmers are still there, the sellers are still there, and the buyers are still there.I don't think it's unreasonable for me to play a game I pay a monthly subscription for without me getting spam and advertisements from platsellers.

[Daedalus Raistlin]

<div><blockquote><hr>Antipaladin wrote:How about if Sony actually delt with this problem in a fitting matter for a change? The blocking of tells from trial accounts has been a massive failure. The farmers are still there, the sellers are still there, and the buyers are still there.I don't think it's unreasonable for me to play a game I pay a monthly subscription for without me getting spam and advertisements from platsellers.<hr></blockquote>So what do you propose?The Devs are trying to get rid of these spammers without crippling legitimate players.I dont think the blocking has been a massive failure - the spammers now have to buy a new subscription every time they get banned. If they end up losing all their accounts, and it starts costing them more money than they're making, hopefully they will stop.As to the preventions, I'm sure everyone is open to ideas that wont affect legitimate players.So make a suggestion.</div>

[Antipalad]

Simple, Sony can do a sting operation and trace the money through their logs. That cripples everything.

[Landiin]

FREEZE! You've been busted by SOE vice!<div></div>

[Hamervelder]

<div><blockquote><hr>Antipaladin wrote:Simple, Sony can do a sting operation and trace the money through their logs. That cripples everything.<hr></blockquote>They do.  I know more than one person who has bought plat, only to lose all that plat, and all their other money, because the money was traced through logs to a plat seller.</div>

[Thantoes]

I know SOE says they are trying to stop the plat farmers/sellers and as far as I can see they have on the trial accounts - but do you think they will really cry about them comming back???? Every time a farmer or seller is band they come back - and have to give SOE more money for the game (new code) AND atleast the first months play fee... Money Money everywhere and SOE is getting a HUGH chunk.....

[Terabethia]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Thantoes wrote:<BR> I know SOE says they are trying to stop the plat farmers/sellers and as far as I can see they have on the trial accounts - but do you think they will really cry about them comming back???? Every time a farmer or seller is band they come back - and have to give SOE more money for the game (new code) AND atleast the first months play fee... Money Money everywhere and SOE is getting a HUGH chunk.....<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR><FONT color=#33ccff>Just the oposite actually. SoE makes little money off the software itself, they make their real cash in subscription fee's. Which is why they sell expansions with all of the previous ones instead of making new players buy them. As for your second statement, the first 30 days of any new account is free, and I am pretty sure that these accounts are reported and banned within 30 days. It's unlikely that SoE is making any sort of profit off of the plat sellers.</FONT>

[Zagats]

<P>I honestly havent had any encounters with plat sellers since they implemented the changes.  I used to get 4-5 peices of mail per day, as well as 10 or so tells saying "go to link to buy plat!", which I always petitioned, and hopefully got that person banned.  </P> <P> </P>

[Antipalad]

Smoke and mirrors people, smoke and mirrors.

[IcedAng]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Antipaladin wrote:<BR>How about if Sony actually delt with this problem in a fitting matter for a change? The blocking of tells from trial accounts has been a massive failure. The farmers are still there, the sellers are still there, and the buyers are still there.<BR><BR>I don't think it's unreasonable for me to play a game I pay a monthly subscription for without me getting spam and advertisements from platsellers.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>SoE DID do something abut it and it stopped for awhile.  But just like the people who create vicious and malicious virus, worms and the like, as soon as they find away to stop the viruses, eradicte them and protect your computers from them, they come out with a new one.  </P> <P>These people do the same thing, it took them awhile to get around the blocks Soe put in their way, but they eventually succeeded.  With everyone reporting them and following it up by /petition SoE can track em and find out how they are bypassing their safeguards, and hopefully plug up the holes.</P> <P>One of my guildies went to their site to see what they were about.......... $18 per plat...........LOL $2-3 on the exchange.  I can't see anyone paying that ridiculous price........but if they did these ppl would have to have paid accounts on each server to deliver, ya cant go back to the noob island.  Mabey they can buy 1 plat and find out who is brining it to em and ban all associated accounts.</P> <P>But in any event, SoE knows this is a problem, and they need the reports and time to track em down and deal with it and do some fancy programming to stop it once again.  But rest assured, once it stops, these people will be very busy trying to figure out how to get around it once again.</P>

[Antipalad]

Last time there was a mass banning of accounts was during the great plat dupe. That's been a while to say the least.

[Killerbee3000]

<div><blockquote><hr>Antipaladin wrote:Last time there was a mass banning of accounts was during the great plat dupe. That's been a while to say the least.<hr></blockquote>yes, but, back then tehy banned many accounts of innocent players by accident, they have learned from it and are now much more carefull about it.</div>